Original Design/ Planning

A compilation of my final project progress over the weeks…

Press-Fit Model

cardboardBottom labeledCardboard This is a cardboard prototype of what the pot is going to look like. It will have three levels: the soild container, the water container, and the electronics container in that order from top to bottom. The electronics container is put on the bottom for easy access and that is where the holders for the pump will be. The wiring for the pot will be on the outside with copper tracing done on the viynl cutter and the pot itself will be made out of acrylic so it can hold water for a long time without corroding.

Right now I can turn the pump on and off and get temperature readings from a sensor. My next steps electrical wise will be getting a soil moisture sensor and a humidity sensor and building a water level sensor for the water storage(using capacitors). After that I willset the temperature, humidity, and water moisture to display to an LCD screen.

Water Storage Tank Level Measurement

My project has to have a tank to store water for watering the plants and I do not want the motor to run if that tank is empty. I explored measuring water level using capacitance on a smaller scale to prepare for my final project.

meter

For my water level meter for the final project, what I will probably do is have a meter at the top of the tank and a meter at the bottom and then measure the difference between their capacitance to determine if the water level is running low in order to avoid having to recalibrate all the time.

potSketch

Temperature and Humidity Display

My original plan was to display the temperature and humidity using an LCD screen, but I was having trouble getting the LCD to a visible brightness. AS a result I decided to switch to using an LED display where the nummber of lit LEDs would correspond to the temperature (which is probably more fitting for the aesthetic I’m going for anyway). I tested using the LED strips with temperature first.

I also ordered a non corrosive capacitive soil moisture sensor and a DHT22 temperature/humidity sensor (DHT11 would have also worked) off Amazon and followed their tutorials. Soil Moisture DHTXX